📍Genetic Diversity is Important in Forests!

Anyone who has taken the train to Nainital or anywhere in the Kumaon Uttarakhand, will have alighted at the last train station of the route- Kathgodam. Look at that name carefully-Kath means wood in Hindi and Godam means godown. Kathgodam was named for the place where all the trees that were felled in the Kumaon region were stored for further transportation to wherever they were needed. Kathgodam in a manner of speaking, was the graveyard of the forests of the Kumaon region.

During the time of British rule, forests were seen only as a resource to be exploited, not anything of intrinsic value, as pools of diverse plants, animals, birds, insects, a whole range of biodiversity. They did not see forests as agents that modulate the local climate and least of all, that they were the homes of several indigenous communities. So the Brits engaged in large scale felling of natural forests for their commercial and industrial use, especially in the Himalayas and the Western Ghats, reducing rich forests to raw material. They planted monocultures largely of timber trees like Teak and Sal, as well as Pine for resin and fast growing Eucalyptus and Acacia for firewood. Colonial rule destroyed our biodiversity rich forests, altered native ecosystems and displaced indigenous

communities who relied on them for food, fodder, fuel and timber. 

Unfortunately, our own Forest Department took over the colonial legacy and continued to treat the forest largely as raw material, planting trees primarily for commercial use, so we have grown used to seeing uniform plantations as forests. All this is changing slowly but we need to emphasize over and over again that the forests are valuable for many reasons- modulating the climate, storing water, maintaining biodiversity as also their value to the lives of forest dwelling communities.

For forests to be forests, the varied genetic diversity they contain, must be protected and enabled to flourish. The genetic diversity in forests is key to their integrity, resilience and long-term ecosystem health. It is what provides the basis for tree populations to adapt to changing climates, resist invasive pests and survive environmental stressors like dry spells and excessive humidity.

Genetically uniform tree populations like in man-made plantations are highly vulnerable to pests and diseases. In contrast, genetically diverse populations contain many individuals with natural resistance, thus ensuring that the entire stand is not killed by a single pathogen as happened with genetically uniform potato farms in Ireland. The entire potato crop, the staple food of the Irish, got wiped out due to infestation by a fungus called Phytophthera infestans, This resulted in a famine in which about one million people died of starvation. Genetic diversity helps forests to adapt to climate turbulence because forests very often have to face rapid environmental shifts, like rising temperatures and prolonged droughts. A mixture of genetic profiles increases the likelihood that certain trees/plants will tolerate heatwaves and others will be able to cope with low water availability. This enables an overall survival of the forest even if it suffers some damage. 

From the aspect of commercial use, forestry programs are better off with greater genetic variability so that they can select trees to breed for desirable timber traits—such as faster growth rates, higher wood density, and straight trunks—without diminishing the overall stress resilience of the forest. Healthy genetic diversity with a variety of species is also essential to maintain the integrity of the forest and restore it if damage is inflicted. Reforestation programs have a higher chance of success if they have access to seeds from a diverse range of thriving, well adapted trees because these have high survival rates.

 

THE ROLE OF WOMEN IN CONSERVING GENETIC DIVERSITY

Women have traditionally played an important role in managing the genetic diversity in their regions, harvesting carefully, and allowing regeneration so that the resource base is sustained over generations. In many Asian societies, field operations like ploughing and marketing are done by men, and the selection and storage of seed, planting and weeding in fields, by women. Women generally use their knowledge of natural and biological resources to satisfy multiple household needs. They breed well-adapted varieties and develop sophisticated farming systems using a range of crop varieties, to ensure food and nutrition for the family. Their access to and use of genetic resources is unhindered and they succeed in making effective use of them for food, fodder, medicine and other essential products.

The transformation of agriculture to meet the needs of a globalizing market economy is contributing to the steady erosion of the biological resources and knowledge systems controlled by women. The trend towards monocultures and cash crops in a high input, intensive agriculture system, to produce crops on contract or for urban and export markets, is impacting negatively on women’s role in domestic and local arenas. 

Communities often have well-defined gender roles in plant and seed selection and storage. Traditionally women in Asia often use a variety of indigenous plants, trees and animals, and they have a direct stake in conservation. The Neem tree, for example, is used as a bactericidal agent in agriculture, in the household for storing food and to prevent infections. Women tend to take a lead role in preserving and conserving croplands, forests and other natural resources for perpetual use. Men are more likely to be involved in converting these resources into cash. Women are also often the traditional caretakers of genetic and species diversity in agriculture. Their knowledge of growing conditions and nutritional characteristics of various species trains them in seed selection and plant breeding. In many societies, it is women who are mainly responsible for this, as well as for seed exchange and preservation of local bio diversity, often gathering fruits and medicinal plants from forests for immediate use or for sale at local markets.

The ‘Convention of Biological Diversity’ (CBD), which affirms the sovereign rights of nations over their bio resources, calls for conservation of bio diversity, sustainable use of its components, and fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the utilisation of genetic resources. The CBD makes reference in the Preamble to the central role of women in conserving bio diversity and knowledge of plant properties: “Recognizing also the vital role that women play in the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity and affirming the need for the full participation of women at all levels of policy-making and implementation for biological diversity conservation”. ‘Agenda 21’, adopted at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, also stresses the need to strengthen women’s involvement in national ecosystem management and control of environmental degradation. 

Other international plans of action have highlighted the critical role of gender in genetic resources conservation and sustainable utilisation. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) publication, ‘Gender – Key to Sustainability and Food Security’, states: “Rural women in developing countries hold the key to many of the planet’s agriculture systems for food production, seed selection, and protection of agro-bio diversity. Women using diverse wild and indigenous species often use home gardens as experimental plots.”

I came across a startling report about birds on the war front in Ukraine using thin fibre optic cables to build their nests.

These cables are used to control attack drones and the birds have found a use for it. It's tragic that a war torn region has so destroyed and disrupted nature that birds are not able to live in peace, build their nests with natural materials like leaves, barks and grasses. They have to make do with what is available.

On the other hand, the adaptability of these birds to their changed environment is inspiring, as is their creativity.

Nature is resilient as these birds show us. But there is a limit to this resilence. If you disrupt and destroy nature beyond a point, the resilience is broken.

Our climate crisis is a living example of this.

📍THE BITTER IRONY OF CLIMATE CHANGE

Climate change alters rainfall patterns and temperature regimes. This in turn influences local water balance and disturbs the optimal cultivation period for particular crops, known as the Length of Growing Period or LGP. According to climate forecasts, land with good LGP will decrease by over 51 million hectare worldwide.

Adequate LGP is required to ensure that medium to long duration crops can successfully grow to maturity. Some crop varieties mature quickly and are ready for use in a shorter period (short duration varieties). Others, especially most cereals, require a longer duration to mature. When the LGP in an agro climatic zone is long, a variety of crops from short duration to long duration can be cultivated there throughout the growing season. This means higher food production. When on the other hand, the LGP contracts, the growing season is shortened, fewer crops can be cultivated thus reducing food production.

Most climate models predict large increases in the LGP of today’s temperate and arctic regions. This means that temperate regions that are currently one crop zones (growing just one crop per year) will become two crop zones (growing two crops per year), resulting in a doubling of food production there.

On the other hand, almost half the production potential of tropical countries like India could be lost. The biggest blow to food production is expected to come from the loss of multiple cropping zones. The worst hit areas are predicted to be those where favorable weather allows farmers to take two to three crops in a year. These areas are predicted to turn into single crop zones, where only one crop can be taken in a year because the LGP will have shrunk or shifted In a perverse irony, the develop/ temperate countries will experience an increase in agriculture production as temperate regions get warmer. 

The regions which because of their industrialization and huge emissions of Greenhouse Gases (GHGs) are responsible for wrecking the climate will actually end up being its beneficiaries. On the other hand, today’s developing world in the tropics, which has not contributed to creating this climate hazard, will be its worst victim, and will suffer a loss in agriculture productivity, with serious consequences for food availability and hunger.

📍Who is saving and who is destroying the forest ?

A recent report has just told us that India can save its forests by winning the war on poverty. Indicating thereby that the poor exploit the forest recklessly to fulfil their needs. But is this really true? How come there are dense jungles where the Adivasi communities, hardly ranked as the “richest” on the economic scale, have been living for generations? And how is it that forests or even orchards near cities are hacked and cleared for projects like luxury housing or amusement parks?
 
Forest dwellers usually secure their livelihoods in sustainable ways and they treat their forests as their strongest allies, not their enemies. The concept of Sacred Groves in the North East shows us how these communities venerate their forests and trees. The Sarna of the Chotanagpur adivasis are groves of old Sal trees which are sacred to them, where they believe their village deities and spirits reside. Sacred Groves and Sarnas are inviolate. The forests are protected.
 
On the other hand, the township of Gurgaon (now Gurugram), part of the National Capital Region has been built on orchards, fields and pastures. No, it is not the poor who ravage the forests, it is the rich with their bottomless greed.
 
We are seeing how the lush, biodiversity rich Hasdeo forest is being butchered, heartless brutes treading over the weeping women holding on to the feet of the monsters who are vandalising their trees, their deities and gods, the spirits of their ancestors. The communities of Hasdeo are not destroying their forest, Adani and his henchmen are doing that.
 
So please stop the hypocrisy about winning the war on poverty to save forests. Stop spinning yarns about income generation activities that will be mired in corruption and never materialise. Instead, restrain the unbridled avarice of the super-rich honchos…and the forests will be saved.

The News - https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/science/not-binary-india-can-save-its-forests-by-winning-the-war-on-poverty/article71100846.ece

 📍How Climate Change is Starving the Himalayan Herders

The pastoral communities of India (the herders who rear sheep, goats, cattle, camels as also yaks in our northern and hilly states) live a transhumance life, moving across regions with their animals, in search of pastures. Such a system allows grazed pastures to recover and regenerate while new pastures ensure their animals had sufficient food throughout the year.

The livelihood of the mountain pastoralists is based on a delicate seasonal migration: taking their herds high up into the mountain pastures (bugyals) in the summer, and bringing them down to the valleys in the winter.

But global warming is disrupting this ancient rhythm. As the Himalayan glaciers melt at an increasingly rapid pace and weather patterns become highly erratic, the vegetation cycles of these high-altitude pastures are changing. The grass is often not there when the herders arrive.

Their traditional knowledge tells them when to move their flocks, but climate change has erased the reliability of that knowledge. Without adequate grazing lands, the animals starve, and the traditional pastoralist economy collapses. 

Clearly, there is an urgent need to draft adaptation strategies for these high-altitude communities.

 

📍ARE DESIGNER BABIES DANGEROUS ? 

Tampering with the genetics of producing babies began with Dolly the sheep who became a genetic sensation in 1996. She was cloned by a process called somatic cell nuclear transfer. In this, scientists took a cell from an adult sheep and transferred its DNA into another sheep egg cell from which the nucleus was removed. This embryo grew up to be Dolly, showing for the first time that specialized cells from an adult body could be reprogrammed to create an entirely new organism. Since then scientists have cloned over 20 other mammal species, including cattle, horses, pigs and mice and later, even monkeys.

 

We have come a long way since Dolly, via stem cell therapy and research on human embryos . The latter is governed by the globally accepted 14-Day Rule which prohibits researchers from culturing or researching live human embryos in the lab past 14 days of development. This convention was breached in 2018 by a Chinese scientist Dr. He Jiankui who secretly edited the DNA of twin embryos to make them resistant to HIV. There was an international furore when this was discovered and it led to Dr. Jiankui’s imprisonment for violating medical ethics and regulations. 

 

I have a sense that the earlier scientific outrage seems to be weakening as genetic technologies develop further and the appeal of designer babies refuses to abate. 

The new gene-editing technologies like CRISPR-Cas9 have made it even easier to alter the DNA of human embryos and produce genetically modified babies or ‘designer babies’. It is feared that this prohibited line of research is now being done covertly in more than one lab.

The main scientific goal of creating designer babies is to halt the transmission of heritable diseases but there are already whispered demands to create an infant with certain characteristics that parents consider desirable. This would be the start of the slippery slope.

Apart from grave ethical concerns, the reason why frivolous genetic alteration of the embryo is proscribed is because DNA editing of human embryos often leads to unintentional or “off-target" mutations. This will result in a “cellular mosaic”, meaning not all cells will get altered as intended. These defective changes will be passed down to all future generations, so all descendants of this “designer person” will carry the defect of the cellular mosaic. And we have no idea what impacts this will have.

 

If designer babies and designer adults become a reality in substantial numbers, we can easily imagine that the genetic and physical integrity of homo sapiens will change. How likely is it that this will happen? Hard to say. Covenants and regulations can be/ have been broken as we have seen. And there are plenty of mavericks out there wanting to go out and plant their flag on something outrageous…and forbidden.